


so you better get this party started

by sarahcakes613



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Coming Out, Glitter, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-03
Updated: 2020-06-03
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:40:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24527785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarahcakes613/pseuds/sarahcakes613
Summary: Sonny's covered in pink glitter, and Barba's just taken the last carrot cake muffin. Nothing about this day is going the way Sonny had planned, and to top it all off, he's just realized he has a crush on the only person he's ever come out to.
Relationships: Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.
Comments: 18
Kudos: 74
Collections: Barisi Pride 2020





	so you better get this party started

**Author's Note:**

> This covers Side A: Pink and Side B: Coming Out for the June challenge.

Sonny is covered in pink glitter when he gets called in to work, and it’s not his fault. It isn’t even not his fault in an accidental “wasn’t careful opening the jar” way, or a fun “got up close and personal with a stripper” way. It’s not his fault in the “my sister had a gender reveal baby shower and all I got was a lousy face full of pink glitter” way.

He’s attempting to sponge the more stubborn particles off his sleeves when Barba walks into the break room.

“I’d ask, but I’m not sure your answer could come close to the amusing excuses I’ve already thought up.” He comments as he helps himself to the last carrot cake muffin from the pastry basket. Sonny watches him, wide-eyed. He had been planning to eat that carrot cake muffin, as soon as he could safely do so without dropping glitter onto his food.

Barba doesn’t notice his consternation as he leans against the table and begins picking the muffin apart. He’s eating around the raisins. Sonny loves the raisins. He finally raises his eyes from the muffin in Barba’s hands to Barba’s face, and Barba is staring at him, a furrow in his brow.

“Are you okay, detective?”

Sonny shakes his head slowly, both to answer the ADA’s question and to try and dispel the image of Barba’s fingers delicately pulling apart his muffin.

“Bella’s pregnant again,” he explains. “And today was the gender reveal thing.” He waves a hand at his shirt. “It’s a girl.” He adds, needlessly.

Barba smirks. “Congratulations are in order then, please give my regards to Bella and Tommy. And try oil, for the glitter.”

Sonny stops the ineffectual wiping he’s been doing with a damp paper towel. “Oil?”

Barba nods. “Lint roller for your shirt, oil for your skin. Baby oil, although olive oil works in a pinch.”

“Okay, well, you know my boring reason for being covered in glitter, it’s only fair I get to know how you know how to remove it from skin.”

“Well, I can promise you it was nothing so heteronormative as a gender reveal.” Barba smirks again, standing up and tucking the rest of the muffin into his jacket pocket. Sonny gazes wistfully as the muffin disappears. “I wasn’t all work no play at Harvard. Two words, Carisi. Circuit parties.”

That catches Sonny’s attention, and his head whips up to stare at Barba. “Wait, you went to circuit parties? Aren’t those, y’know, for um…” he trails off as Barba’s eyes darken.

“Choose your next words carefully, detective.” He warns.

Sonny flushes, tries to explain himself. “No, no, I just meant, um, I didn’t know you were. Y’know. Cause, I heard about that whole thing with Yelina Muñoz. “

Barba rolls his eyes. “Fascinating as it may be to educate you on the many ways in which a man can be attracted to a woman while simultaneously not be heterosexual, I do have places to be. Goodbye, detective.”

Sonny watches him leave, dumbfounded, then hurries to catch him up at the elevator. He slides in just as the doors begin to shut, and Barba looks askance at him. They both watch a small cascade of glitter drift down to the floor of the elevator from Sonny’s sleeves.

“I’m sorry,” Sonny says. “I’m, uh, I wanted to say sorry. I know I sounded kinda ignorant there.”

“A bit,” Barba agrees, but he smiles. “It’s fine, Carisi.”

“I think I might be gay.” Sonny blurts out.

Barba’s eyes widen at the confession. “Oh…kay?”

Sonny’s skin is hot and itchy under the glitter, pink covering pink. “Sorry. Uh, I’ve never said that to anyone before. I never felt like I _could_ say that to anyone before.”

Barba’s face softens. “You don’t owe coming out to anyone but yourself. I’m honoured you told me.”

Sonny falls silent, chewing on his lip as the elevator comes to a stop.

“I thought it would feel different, having someone know.” He finally says as they exit the elevator.

“And?” Barba looks sideways at the detective as they walk out of the precinct side by side.

He shrugs. “I feel pretty much the same. I mean, I’m glad I told you, but I dunno, I guess I always imagined if I ever said it out loud, there’d be a ticker tape parade or something.”

Barba chuckles at that. Sonny feels his blush deepen at having successfully amused the lawyer for some reason other than his own ineptitude.

“Tell you what, Carisi.” Barba pulls the partially-eaten muffin out his pocket and nibbles at it. “If you can wait til the end of June, I’ll take you out to the biggest out-of-the-closet ticker tape parade there is.”

It takes a minute for Sonny to catch on, but when he does, he smiles widely. “Yeah, that’d be cool. Thanks, Barba.”

Barba smiles again, the soft one he rarely has cause to show in front of his coworkers. As his Lyft pulls up, he hands what’s left of the muffin to Sonny, who takes it on instinct. Looking down, he sees that it’s the bottom half, mostly scooped out but with all of the raisins still tucked into the wrapper.

On the one hand, it’s like one of his nieces handing him an apple after she’s bitten into it and changed her mind, but Sonny’s heart still skips a traitorous beat, because Barba’s left him the best part. As Barba’s ride pulls away, he pops a few raisins into his mouth. He tries not to think about Barba’s nimble fingers picking the muffin apart, and fails.

Heading back into the precinct, Sonny makes a mental note to pick up some baby oil on his way home. He tries not to think about Barba’s nimble fingers rubbing oil into his skin, and fails at that as well. By the time he gets up to his desk, the parts of him not covered in glitter are as pink as the bits that are. Olivia takes one look at him, at the trail of glitter he’s got floating behind him, rolls her eyes, and sends him home to shower and change.

Driving home, fingers tapping along to the radio, he thinks about the direction his day has gone. It’s not like he woke up this morning intending to come out, but he doesn’t regret it. He knows it’s only the first rung in a long ladder, but at least he’s no longer on the floor trying to jump up.

He thinks about the casual way Barba had mentioned his past, and wonders what other things he’s said that were clues he just didn’t pick up on. He wonders if a future like that is in his cards, where he’ll be able to casually mention his sexuality like it hasn’t kept him awake at night for years. He runs his tongue over his teeth, tasting the carrot cake muffin, and he wonders where Barba might fit into that future, if Barba fits into that future, if Barba would even want to fit into that future.

He realizes with a start that he would himself very much like to fit Barba into that future, and maybe into other things, and now he’s thinking about the baby oil again.

No, nothing about today is turning out the way he expected – except his sister’s reveal, he totally called another niece – but he has no complaints about the way it has turned out, glitter and all.

**Author's Note:**

> The end of June is generally when NYC's Pride parade happens.
> 
> Rafael Barba eats carrot cake muffins entirely because that way he can honestly say yes when his mother asks if he's eaten a vegetable today.  
> I have no personal opinion on them one way or another, but raisins in baked goods are valid.


End file.
